Monday, October 24, 2011

U.S. And Iraq Still In Talks Over Training Mission

On October 21, 2011, President Barak Obama announced that all American combat troops would be out of Iraq by the end of the year. This fulfilled a promise he made back when he was running for president. The administration was pushing to keep several thousand U.S. soldiers in Iraq into 2012, but Iraq’s parties, with the exception of the Kurds, were all against this idea. Baghdad and Washington are still in negotiations over trainers however.

Despite that initial failure, the two sides are still committed to working out some kind of deal. The Chief of Staff of Iraq’s Army, General Babaker Zebari issued a statement saying that Iraq’s military still needed assistance. The same thing was said by Prime Minister Maliki, and by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. Iraq has even offered ways to get around the immunity issue by allowing them to operate as part of the NATO training mission, or under the State Department. That would probably mean only a few hundred rather than a few thousand as originally envisioned, but it would still mean some kind of military presence in Iraq for the U.S. This is driven by the fact that Iraq’s military is incapable of external defense currently, and is in the process of purchasing advanced weapons from the Americans like jet fighters, tanks, etc., which require foreign help. Officials from both countries say that talks are still underway, and that details will not be worked out until next year. Even if that fails, Iraq is likely to hire contractors to do the work, because it cannot learn how to use all this new equipment on its own.

The hopes of some in Washington to maintain a robust military presence in Iraq past 2011 are quickly fading. Rather than being able to dictate terms, Baghdad is in the driver’s seat now, and is firm on wanting some trainers, but without granting them exemptions from Iraqi laws. That still leaves the door open to several hundred American troops staying under current training missions, or hiring out American civilians as contractors to help Iraqis learn how to operate their new tanks and aircraft. Both countries continue to talk about this issue, but they are going nowhere right now. Like many things in Iraq, negotiations are likely to drag out for months, and continue into next year before any final decision is made. More importantly, what this episode shows is that the American period of Iraqi history is coming to an end, and Baghdad is exerting its independence and sovereignty more and more.

3 comments:

Passer by
said...

"Baghdad is in the driver’s seat now"

"Baghdad is exerting its independence and sovereignty"

This is pure speculation. It sounds cool, and also stereotypical (the good iraqis putting the bad occupier in his place), but thats it. One can also say that Iran is in the driving seat, since the end result is consistent with Iranian interests.

Would you call a british dominion "a souvereign and independent state" simply because it rejects french troop presence?

People always like to say that someone is in control of Iraq. First it was the Americans. Now it's Iran. Yes, Tehran has a lot of influence in Baghdad, but to think that Iraqis don't have, express, and act upon their own interests seems naive. If Iran controls everything why is Camp Ashraf still open after all these years?

P.S. if Iran is in the driver's seat why have the Americans been in Iraq for the last 8 years, why did Baghdad sign a Status of Forces Agreement with Washington that Iran was opposed to in 2008, Why are they buying Americans tanks, fighter jets, guns over the objections of Tehran, etc.? There's plenty of examples of Iraq expressing its independence from Iranian influence.

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About Me

Musings On Iraq was started in 2008 to explain the political, economic, security and cultural situation in Iraq via original articles and interviews. I have written for the Jamestown Foundation, Tom Ricks’ Best Defense at Foreign Policy and the Daily Beast, and was responsible for a chapter in the book Volatile Landscape: Iraq And Its Insurgent Movements. My work has been published in Iraq via AK News, Al-Mada, Sotaliraq, All Iraq News, and Ur News, and I have been interviewed by Rudaw English. I was interviewed on CCTV and TRT World News TV, and have appeared in CNN, the Christian Science Monitor, The National, Columbia Journalism Review, Mother Jones, PBS’ Frontline, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Institute for the Study of War, Radio Free Iraq, and others. I have also been cited in Iraq From war To A New Authoritarianism by Toby Dodge, Imagining the Nation Nationalism, Sectarianism and Socio-Political Conflict in Iraq by Harith al-Qarawee, ISIS Inside the Army of Terror by Michael Weiss and Hassan Hassahn, The Rise of the Islamic State by Patrick Cocburn, and others. If you wish to contact me personally my email is: motown67@aol.com